Neural differences in the processing of semantic relationships across cultures

State University of New York at StonyBrook, Stony Brook, MA, 11794, USAThe current study employed functional MRI to investigate the contribution of domain-general (e.g. executive functions) anddomain-specific (e.g. semantic knowledge) processes to differences in semantic judgments across cultures. Previous behavioralexperiments have identified cross-cultural differences in categorization, with East Asians preferring strategies involving thematicor functional relationships (e.g. cow-grass) and Americans preferring categorical relationships (e.g. cow-chicken). East Asians andAmerican participants underwent functional imaging while alternating between categorical or thematic strategies to sort triadsof words, as well as matching words on control trials. Many similarities were observed. However, across both category andrelationship trials compared to match (control) trials, East Asians activated a frontal-parietal network implicated in controlledexecutive processes, whereas Americans engaged regions of the temporal lobes and the cingulate, possibly in response toconflict in the semantic content of information. The results suggest that cultures differ in the strategies employed to resolveconflict between competing semantic judgments.Keywords: cognition; culture; executive function; fMRI; semantic